Provenzano Andrew C, Lampinen James M, Erickson William B, Frowd Charlie, Mahoney Greg
Department of Psychological Science, University of Arkansas, United States.
Department of Psychological Science, University of Arkansas, United States.
Sci Justice. 2020 Nov;60(6):522-530. doi: 10.1016/j.scijus.2020.08.003. Epub 2020 Aug 13.
During long-term missing children cases, forensic artists construct age-progressions to estimate the child's current appearance. It is commonly believed that incorporating information about the child's biological relatives is critical in accurately estimating the child's current appearance. However, some evidence suggests that predicting appearance based on inheritance of features may be error prone. The present studies examine whether age-progressions constructed with the aid of a biological reference photos led to better recognition than those constructed without a biological reference. We also investigated whether there would be any variation depending on the age-range of the age-progressions. Eight professional forensic artists created age-progressions based upon photographs provided by each of our eight targets. Half of their age progressions with the aid of parental reference photos and half without parental reference photos. Furthermore, half were age-progressed across a longer age-range (5-20 years) and half covered a shorter age-range (12-20 years). In Experiment 1 similarity scores were higher over shorter age-ranges. Further, across longer age-ranges age-progressions created with the aid of a parental reference were lower than those without a reference. In Experiment 2 recognition performance was higher across shorter age-ranges. Additionally, across longer age-ranges age-progressions created with the aid of a parental reference were recognized worse than those without a reference. These results suggest that in long-term missing person cases, forensic artists may benefit from not relying on biological references. Finally, consistent with previous research (e.g. Lampinen et al., 2012) age-progressions provided no benefit over using outdated photographs.
在长期失踪儿童案件中，法医艺术家会制作年龄增长模拟图来估计孩子目前的外貌。人们普遍认为，纳入有关孩子亲生亲属的信息对于准确估计孩子目前的外貌至关重要。然而，一些证据表明，基于特征遗传来预测外貌可能容易出错。本研究考察了借助生物参考照片制作的年龄增长模拟图是否比没有生物参考的模拟图更有助于识别。我们还调查了根据年龄增长模拟图的年龄范围是否会有任何差异。八位专业法医艺术家根据我们八个目标对象各自提供的照片制作年龄增长模拟图。他们制作的模拟图中，一半借助父母的参考照片，另一半没有父母的参考照片。此外，一半模拟图的年龄跨度较长（5至20岁），另一半的年龄跨度较短（12至20岁）。在实验1中，较短年龄范围内的相似度得分更高。此外，在较长年龄范围内，借助父母参考制作的年龄增长模拟图比没有参考的模拟图得分更低。在实验2中，较短年龄范围内的识别表现更高。此外，在较长年龄范围内，借助父母参考制作的年龄增长模拟图的识别效果比没有参考的模拟图更差。这些结果表明，在长期失踪人员案件中，法医艺术家可能不依赖生物参考会更有益。最后，与先前的研究（例如Lampinen等人，2012年）一致，年龄增长模拟图并不比使用过时照片更有优势。
